Lummi Nation accuses Whidbey Telecom of digging up, ignoring remains at Point Roberts

The Lummi Nation filed a lawsuit Monday that accuses Whidbey Telecom of repeatedly digging up and disturbing Native burial grounds at Point Roberts.

"This wasn't an accident. It was a series of decisions," said Greg Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners, who is representing the Lummis.

The lawsuit names the Langley-based telecom company, as well as Whatcom County, which permitted three broadband-expansion projects, and the U.S. departments of agriculture and commerce, which funded them.

Point Roberts has been a cultural location for the Lummi Nation for more than 5,000 years, according to the lawsuit.

"The remains of countless ancestors were carefully laid to rest in its soil," the lawsuit states.

The complaint cites three separate Whidbey Telecom projects that have impacted ancestral burial grounds dating back to 2020 and continued through 2025.

The lawsuit alleged the company:

• Did not consult with the tribe.
• Trenched through burial grounds multiple times.
• Did not stop work after encountering evidence of human remains.
• Resumed construction after stop-work obligations were triggered.
• Left human remains and funerary objects in dirt piles exposed to the weather for years.
• Lost human remains.
• Withheld information about the extent of the damage.
• Denied access to tribal officials hoping to recover and rebury remains and artifacts.

In one instance, the lawsuit said Whidbey Telecom workers continued digging a 1,000-foot-long, 3-foot-deep trench after repeatedly encountering human remains.

RELATED: Bringing ancestors home — the long process of recovering tribal remains

“At every critical moment—when consultation was required, when human remains were uncovered, when work should have stopped—the defendants chose to proceed,” Werkheiser said.

The lawsuit details federal, state, and local laws it says were broken, and asks for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

The suit also asks for ongoing Whidbey Telecom projects on Point Roberts to stop, so the full extent of the impact to Native burial grounds can be assessed.

“These protections are not optional,” Lena Tso, tribal historic preservation officer for the Lummi Nation said in a press release announcing the suit. “They are the minimum required to ensure that development does not come at the cost of erasing a people’s history. Here, those safeguards were treated as obstacles instead of obligations.”

KUOW reached out to both Whatcom County and Whidbey Telecom.

Whatcom County Deputy Executive Kayla Schott-Bresler said via email, "The County has no comment at this time."

Whidbey Telecom did not respond to an initial interview request.

Tribal Chair Anthony Hillaire said the pattern of mistakes at multiple levels shows a lack of respect toward the Lummi Nation and his ancestors.

"What happened here is not just a legal failure, it is a human one," he said. "The law requires respect before, during, and after any disturbance. That respect was missing at every stage."